Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Tomorrow anonymous sources will report about satanic rituals in the bullpen.

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!!!

PRESIDENT/CEO LARRY LUCCHINO ON BEHALF OF THE BOSTON RED SOX: “Tonight our organization has heard directly from Jon, Josh, John, and former manager Terry Francona. Each has assured us that the allegation that surfaced today about drinking in the dugout during games in 2011 is false, and we accept their statements as honest and factual.

“As we continue our internal examination to fully understand what went wrong in September, 2011, we appreciate these strong and clear statements from our players.

“It is time to look forward and move forward, rather than allow a reckless, unsubstantiated accusation from ‘anonymous sources’ to mislead the public.”

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Look, from the sounds of things the players probably took some liberties that were both inappropriate and had a negative effect on the season. At the same time, this is getting ridiculous. The number of stories looking at what the Sox should do going forward or looking back and the pluses and minuses of 2011 that I've seen on Boston.com can be counted on one hand and that's counting Peter Abraham's piece where he said the Sox have a "tough decision" regarding Varitek and Wakefield (psst...it ain't that tough).

I think these statements are OK, but at this point, like I said a few days ago, I think all these guys from Henry on down should say, "We've addressed those issues, internally and in our statements, so let's talk about 2012."

I'm tired of this "unnamed source". I hope they find out who he is and the players can get their hands on him. Maybe that's ownership's diabolical plan, to turn everyone against this cowardly unnamed source. That'll promote unity amongst the players, organization and fanbase.

OK, stupid conspiracy theory time, what if Terry Francona is the unnamed source?

Put yourself in Tito's shoes, you are concerned that some of your personal issues are going to get out there so you include those in a litany of issues. Because of your popularity and the dignified manner with which you dealt with being let go the backlash somewhat predictably is against ownership for slandering you. Meanwhile, you get to make it clear that the lazy players and not the manager were the ones who failed at the end of the season despite your attempts to treat them like men rather than like children.

The end result is that blame is shifted off of you fairly quickly, your own dirty laundry comes out (as would be predicted) but does so in a manner that still leaves you looking better than ownership and you ride off into the sunset waiting for that next call.

There are probably going to be some lingering issues over who let who down, who threw who under the bus and who broke the rules on clubhouse confidentiality. Deciding what to address and what to ignore may be a big issue.

So drinking in the clubhouse is OK, but drinking in the dugout is a mortal sin?

How about the runway between the clubhouse and the dugout- can you drink there?

Lisa: What are we gonna have?
Homer: Well, that depends on what your teachers say. If you've been good, pizza. If you've been bad... uh... let's see... poison.
Lisa: What if one of us has been good and one of us has been bad?
Bart: Poison pizza.

Depends on how much they ask us to eat, but I say move him. I don't see a path forward with him that doesn't involve continued decline or surgery, so best to get some salary relief out of a awful situation.

#14 It's more pronounced than that. The starters had a 7.08 era (7.99 RA) in September.

Needless to say the starters didn't tend to last long -- averaging 4.75 innings per start. Which of course place an awful lot of extra load on the bullpen -- which responded with their worst month of the year. Dan Bard went 0-4 with a 10.64 era (.256/.396/.372), and given his role that hurt a lot. (Papelbon was OKish, Aceves was very good)

They played 9 1 run games and went 2-7. They also went 0-3 in games decided by 2 runs. (I'm surprised to see how many close games there were, but the offense did its part in September and it's a pretty good one even without Youk)

According to one of the insiders, Jason Giambi and Roger Clemens would routinely drink beer on the dugout bench when they played for the Yankees, passing back and forth what Giambi called his "protein shake," code for a cup of beer, the source said.

And they weren't the only ones who partook. "Rally beers are big in the clubhouse," one insider said. "Guys would drink them all the time, on the bench, in the clubhouse, in the training room. It's common."

...

Beer has been a staple in Mets clubhouses, too, one of the sources said. "Guys would go into the clubhouse, pour beer in Gatorade cups and return to the dugout," he said. "In the old days, the beer distributors would leave beer for the players. We'd have three or four cases in the clubhouse at any one time."

...

MLB forbids alcohol in the dugout, spokesman Pat Courtney said, although booze is allowed in clubhouses, or on team charters, at the discretion of team officials. Teams used to provide beer in clubhouses, but many have stopped in recent years because of liability issues involving drinking and driving. The Yankees banned alcohol on the charters, and it is never seen in the main clubhouse of either the Yankees or the Mets.

Beer has been a staple in Mets clubhouses, too, one of the sources said. "Guys would go into the clubhouse, pour beer in Gatorade cups and return to the dugout," he said. "In the old days, the beer distributors would leave beer for the players. We'd have three or four cases in the clubhouse at any one time."

Boston.com says that Curt Young is returning to the Oakland A's. It doesn't say whether he is fired, or he quit, or whether the Sox are asking for Gio Gonzalez as compensation for the last year of his contract...

The coaches were given permission to seek other employment, so my guess is that he left voluntarily. He had one year left on his contract with Boston, but teams almost always release the coaches when the manager departs.